I found this in what I suspect is a very colloquial Cantonese website: 點解觀塘咁L塞
What is this 'L'? I am sure I must have seen this before, but I do not understand in what context.
Thanks
2 Answers
From 廣東粗口五大字
撚:
讀作nan2。此字乃是假借字，「撚」字是指把玩、揉搓、撥弄等的動作，在部份場合下不被視為粗口，例如「撚手小菜」即解成拿手小菜、「撚雀」則是飼養雀鳥。
當用作粗口時，正寫為「尸」字裡加個「粦」字，[發音為 lan2]，俗寫為「門」字裡加個「能」字，即是「𨶙」字。當作為粗口時，則解成下列意思：
名詞，「陽具」的意思 (Noun: "penis")
語氣助詞，只用於加強語氣，用於句子中；(Modal auxiliary words, only used to strengthen the tone and used in sentences)
助詞，用作顛倒句子原本意思，可視為反語。
近年網民使用時，有時為避免出現粗口字，會以英文字母「L」代替。 (In recent years, netizens sometimes use the English letter "L" instead to avoid swear words.)
點解觀塘咁(L)塞 = 點解觀塘咁(撚)塞 = Why is Kwun Tong so (damn) congested
'塞' is short for '塞車' (be congested)- of traffic
We also use:
'小' for '屌'
'忍' for '𨶙'
'狗' for '㞗'
'西' for '屄'
'實' for '杘'
L = 𨶙 = fucking/damn
咁L = why so damn/why so fucking
L is like a softening of something like the f-word, in written language, maybe akin to frick. But, you'll probably find it's usually spoken out in full.
This singer JB also has a song called:
咁撚 can also be written = 咁L, which should probably be properly written: 咁𨶙
Xiami translates the song into English as:
Why So Fat (Limiter)
Here though 咁l is probably better translated as:
- 咁l = so (fucking)
